10 Biggest Video Game Flops Of All Time

2. Too Human

Given the history of Too Human, it’s amazing the game was ever released at all. Developer Silicon Knights originally meant for it to come out on the PlayStation, but it remained frozen in development hell for years, forced to start from scratch over and over as it switched from various consoles. It finally landed with Microsoft and was released in 2008 for the Xbox 360.

The final release of Too Human did not live up to the wait. Despite some excellent world building featuring an inspired mixture of Norse mythology and science fiction, everything else about the game was uninspired and underdeveloped. The story was bland, the protagonist a carbon copy of every other action hero out there, and the combat hampered by questionable design decisions. The various parts just didn’t gel together into a seamless whole.

Too Human didn’t sell near enough copies to recoup its rumored 60 to 100 million dollar budget, and a lawsuit involving Epic Games damaged Silicon Knights to the point where they had to file for bankruptcy. They were even court ordered to destroy all copies of any of their games using the Unreal Engine 3, including Too Human. It’s rare to see a game get so brutally punished for its failings in the way Too Human was, making its fate an especially tragic one.